Buyer Beware! Cheaper Isn’t Always Better!

So my son got a Wii U for Christmas. He’s wanted one since they first came out almost 2 years ago and he finally got one! The light in his eye when he got it was priceless. And one of the cool things about the Wii U is that it’s backwards compatible. This means that it plays regular Wii games!

Awesome! That is until you read the fine print.

And the fine print says that for most games, you need a Wii controller. And for many, you need the upgraded Plus controller which shakes the controller when you’re playing. And then for even more, you need the nunchuck attachment. None of which come with the Wii U.

Of course I don’t know any of this until we pop in a Wii game and it tells me that we need a Wii remote. And being the good dad I am, off to the store I go in search of a Wii remote.

Low and behold, at one of the Toy stores, we find a Wii Remote and Nunchuck combo that are branded with Skylanders and over 50% cheaper than a OEM Wii remote (an official Nintendo Wii remote that is). Wow! Score! Or so I thought…

My son is ecstatic because not only did he get a new Wii remote so he could play Wii games, it’s Skylanders branded and it’s a combo remote and nunchuck package! Double and Triple Score for him! Mind you, I had no idea about this motionplus feature until of course later on when one of the games wouldn’t play without it. Regardless, we get home and open up the remote and pop in a Wii game and…

“Ahhh…” The Wii U accepts the game! We can now start playing! Or so we thought.

Turns out that we can move the characters left and right (cool!) and not up or down (not cool!). WHAT?!?! What’s going on here? It must be a defective remote!

So go back to the store and start asking questions. After talking to a few people, turns out one of the store associates is a Nintendo fanatic and has all the consoles and latest games. We told him what was going on and he said, “Yeah. That’s common.”

Huh? What’s he talking about?

He goes on, “I’ve never had a generic remote that’s worked with all the games. The only remote that works with all the games is the Nintendo OEM remote or one that comes directly from Nintendo. Something about how the unit works or operates, none of the generics seem to be able to get it right.”

Now he tells us! Of course they didn’t put that in the fine print anywhere! Here I thought I was getting a deal and if I really wanted to be able to play all the games, I’d have to test my luck and go out and buy multiple different generic remotes or pay full price for the one and only original manufacturer.

Has that ever happened to you? Did you ever think you were getting a deal which turned out wasn’t a deal? Have you ever purchased a bunch of “deals” only to discover that had you paid a bit more for the better product up front you could have saved yourself some money and a bunch of time and frustration?

Now I’m not saying that paying more upfront is always a better or something you should do. What I am saying though is to be aware of what you’re purchasing and why you’re paying what you’re paying.

When it comes to coaching, I’ve seen prices range from cheap ($97 for a full blown coaching program) to well, not so cheap ($100,000 or more!). Of course what you may not realize is that the cheap program can actually be a lot more expensive to you than you realize.

Let’s say you sign up for a $500 program thinking you’re getting a great coach who’s going to help through your challenges. What kind of experience do they have? What are they offering you? Who is their coaching program structured? What are you getting from it?

Too often people sign up for coaching and get a “cubicle” coach. You know, one of those “coaches” hired by a company who works out of cubicle and has a 12 step program for you to follow. While a 12 step program might be a great foundation to start, when it comes to real challenges and real situations, they might not have any idea what to do. And if you don’t fit into their 12 step program, forget about it. You just wasted your $500. Even worse, you follow their “standard” advice for your non-standard situation and it ends up costing you $10,000 or more in mistakes! And that’s getting off cheap!

Hey, I invest in real estate and man, if you make a mistake in real estate, you might be looking at $100,000 loss or more!

When it comes to paying for education, there’s a saying out there that says, “You can either for it upfront and learn how to do things the right way or you can pay for it later one when you make mistakes.” Of course you could be paying a lot more for it later depending upon the size and frequency of your mistakes.

I know that when I work with my clients, I spend the time to get to know them and their particular situation. I then customize a program for them to help them get to where they are to where they want to go. While I have a foundation to build upon, there is no 12 step program. Your program may be 6 steps or 20 steps. It all depends upon your particular situation. With me, you know what you’re going to get and the value you’ll receive.

When you approach all your purchases that way, you’ll be much further ahead in the long run.

And remember, if you get a Wii U, make sure you buy an official Nintendo Wii remote so you and your family can play ALL the games! And to save you some time, here’s an official Nintendo Wii remote link from Amazon.com.